_Crex pratensis_, the widely-ranging Corn-Crake or Land-Rail, extends from most of Europe to the north of Central Asia, wintering in Africa, and occurring accidentally in North America, or even Greenland and Australia. _Zapornia parva_, the Little Crake, _Porzana maruetta_, the Spotted Crake, and _P. bailloni_, Baillon's Crake, are somewhat similar British Birds, the two latter of which have bred in our islands, _P. maruetta_ still doing so in some districts. This species is brownish-olive with white flecks above and below, grey belly, and flanks showing black and white bars. Of its dozen congeners, covering nearly the whole globe, _P. carolina_, the Sora Rail of North America, is particularly well-known. In the Ethiopian genus _Corethrura_, extending to Madagascar, the males are blackish, spotted or streaked with white, and have fine chestnut heads, necks, or even breasts, the female being dusky with rufous mottlings: in _Rallicula_ of New Guinea the chestnut extends over most of the body. _Porzanula_ {249}_palmeri_ of Laysan, an interesting little flightless form with a soft chirping note, which the first discoverer caught with a hand-net, makes its nest under grass-tussocks. Closely allied to _Porzana_ is _Creciscus_, a genus of a dozen species ranging from the United States to the Galápagos, Chili, and Paraguay; two at least of them being remarkable for building a spherical nest with a side entrance in coarse herbage or low bushes, while one is said to make a sort of ladder to reach a platform before its porch.[173] _Limnocorax niger_ of the Ethiopian Region is a glossy black bird with red feet and greenish bill, which walks upon the leaves of water-lilies and such plants, like a Jaçana. _Amaurornis_, inhabiting the Oriental Region and extending to New Britain, links the foregoing genera to the Gallinules. _A. phoenicura_ is a dark greyish bird with white under parts and chestnut flanks, the other three species being duller. _Tribonyx mortieri_, the "Native Hen" of Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania, and _T. ventralis_ of considerably wider range, are respectively ruddy- and olive-brown forms, with blackish tail and vent, slaty lower surface, and white flank-marks. They appear at times in flocks, which arrive and depart with equal suddenness, destroy the settlers' crops, strut about like fowls, and in many respects resemble Moor-Hens in habits, nests, and eggs. The legs are unusually powerful.